I, for one, was continually amused by the amount of people making threads for Cannes only to have it moved before anyone seemed to think it might be a thing

There's been a designated Cannes thread every year on these forums precisely because Cannes is a thing but, you know, whether we note the reaction to Doillon's Rodin biopic here or in a Cannes thread is neither here nor there.

The decision to have a normally heavy-hitter competition title in the opening slot seems wise to generate interest (and a nice workaround by Fremaux from his loose quota of three French films), but Ozon, Hazanavicius, and the aforementioned Doillon aren't exactly an inspiring bunch. That, and Desplechin is one of France's best filmmakers, alongside Assayas.

The Russian titles are extremely exciting and surely the frontrunners for the Palme in what seems like a light year in terms of heavyweights. (2018, though, is looking like a murderer's row.)

Taking Zama straight to Venice seems like the wise move for Martel to just avoid Almodóvar entirely.

I don't know much about the Safdies, but fresh American blood is welcome since few seem to want to show their film there or cannot because of awards season. The Oneohtrix Point Never score is excitement enough.

These eighteen films are not long (minus Loznita's), so there is definitely room for two or three more films.

You're right---I must have let Hazanavicius and Ozon cloud my vision. I also failed to mention Robin Campillo, perhaps because I haven't seen anything by him.

Fortnight to be revealed today or tomorrow. The reveal is listed as 4/20, but I don't know the time. While being interesting in its own right, it might give us some minimal insight into what Fremaux intends to add. Many are saying Denis's Barthes adaptation Dark Glasses is ready but, as Fremaux says in this typically consistent interview, the press reads the press. I'll settle on Östlund and a Palme-stealing Hou.

Hou? Maybe I missed something, but I'm not sure he's even settled on his next project yet. That adaptation of Shulan River got a fair amount of press coverage when Hou spoke about it in 2015, but there's no sign it went into production (a Hou Hsiao-hsien movie starring Shu Qi isn't really the sort of thing you could make on the sly) and he's also talked about a film on the history of the Taiwanese Communist Party.

I did have a thought that the possible Chinese addition mentioned by Fremaux could be Wang Chao's Looking for Rohmer (a.k.a. Seek McCartney), which has yet to premiere anywhere but got a lot of attention last year as the first film centering on an (overt) same-sex romantic relationship to pass the PRC censors. (I guess you could make a case for Farewell My Concubine.) Nobody seems to have liked Wang's Fantasia when it bowed at Cannes '14 and his follow-up doesn't sound terribly promising either, but that's never stopped them before, and it might be to Wang's benefit that the new film has a French co-lead and is set partly in France. Ann Hui's Our Time Will Come is due out in China in early July and could well be ready, but I'm not sure if it's the sort of thing Cannes would go for, and for whatever reason Hui hasn't been to the festival since Song of the Exile in 1990.

Hou was more wishful thinking in the face of having no idea what Fremaux intends to add. I forgot about his Chinese film comment, and Wang seems as plausible as any, especially as a late entry. The release date for Joachim Trier's Thelma is in October in Denmark, so I would not be surprised if it was rejected and will play Venice.

In other news, Fortnight's French filmmakers are unsurprisingly more interesting than their Competition counterparts. I seriously wonder what Claire Denis must do to be in Competition, but she'll fine---she doesn't need me to be outraged on her behalf.

Probably for some of the same reasons anyone writes off anything sight unseen. In other words, I've seen all twenty Hong Sang-soo movies and the last one I really liked was his tenth; I've seen thirty Kurosawa films and the last one that thrilled me was, chronologically, the fourteenth; it's been 14 years since Kawase thrilled me; and Snowpiercer. Of course, I'll be sure to see all five of these new movies next month, and I'll be thrilled to be thrilled by any of them, but my experience suggests high expectations in these kinds of situations may be counterproductive for me.

The trailers for the two Korean thrillers and the Miike playing in the Midnight section look super-mainstream and not even top-of-the-line super-mainstream.

On the other hand, I have relatively high hopes, sight unseen, for: Ramsay, Denis, and Franco, maybe Amalric, maybe Dumont (hoping Slack Bay was an aberration). I love Desplechin, but Jimmie P and the childhood movie have me worried. Haneke, for me, is never bad and can be thrilling. And there's usually a discovery or two.

Makoto Nagahisa’s “And So We Put Goldfish in the Pool” – which won the short film prize at Sundance. High-speed neo-pop mish-mash of ideas, sentiments, and aesthetics evolved from Iwai and Nakashima. Four teen girls whine delightfully about being trapped in the tedium of their generic, mid-sized hometown.

Everardo González' La Libertad del Diablo - which played in Berlin. Another fascinating art-documentary about the kidnapping and corruption in Mexico. [Last year's Tempestad was even more oblique and more riveting.] Victims and perpetrators are interviewed, all in the same nondescript, underlit location, all in the same flesh-colored, skin-tight masks with small stitched holes for eyes, nose, mouth and ears.

Caught up on some other highish-profile films I'd missed this past year: Mimosas; Joseph's Son; On Body and Soul; Ishii Yuya's The Tokyo Night Sky is Always the Densest Shade of Blue. All "of interest".

The festivals this decade have had a weird degree of predictability to them (in choosing which films will win awards, at least; although, Spielberg's jury's prizes were weirdly predictable across-the-board, minus Escalante as Best Director), with that being slightly upended in 2015 and thoroughly upended in 2016, I guess in an effort to stay in key for that year.

I'm tempted for them to just keep Will Smith for photo-ops but, you know, why not him with a seat at a table advocating for (I'd guess) Okja or whatever. (I do kind of miss it when they had novelists on the jury (Morrison in 2005, Pamuk in 2007, T. Williams headed it in 1976), though.)

The policy needs clarification. While in principle I'm favorable to this stance - I like France's cultural protectionism, for the most part - it's certainly not a good thing if this means only films with French theatrical distribution secured pre-Cannes will be eligible. And I doubt very much that is the intent or the way this will be implemented.

But on the other hand, what else would they have to go on - a statement of intent from the film's producers? What happens the first time someone reneges on that guarantee?